COVID-19: US Congress passes 'historic' and 'transformative' coronavirus relief bill - Sky News

The US Congress has approved a $1.9trn (£1.3trn) COVID-19 relief bill.

The House of Representatives gave final congressional approval to the sweeping package by 220-211 votes, seven weeks after Joe Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill without a single Republican vote.

Republican politicians opposed the package as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and not taking heed of signs the pandemic crisis is easing.

Most noticeable to many Americans is the provision to provide up to $1,400 (£1,000) in direct payments this year to the majority of adults and extend $300 (£216) per week emergency unemployment benefits into early September.

The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the COVID relief bill as "historic" and "transformative".

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That may sound like predictable partisan hyperbole, but the $1.9trn plan is indisputably a serious achievement at a critical time for millions of Americans.

It also represents President Biden's most significant early legislative achievement.

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It's a lot of money for a lot of people and will dramatically change the lives of many low-income families over the next year.

Here's a breakdown of the benefits: 85% of households will get $1,400 in stimulus cheques - due to hit their bank accounts by the end of this month.

The legislation offers the full $1,400 payments to those with adjusted gross income of up to $75,000 for individuals, and $150,000 for married couples who file a joint tax return.

The unemployed will get an additional $300 per week and families with children under 17 will receive $3,000 per child.

On top of that, people will get increased rental assistance, food aid and insurance subsidies.

The bill also extends the emergency jobless benefits to early September.

Image: The bill's passing is a significant early legislative achievement for President Joe Biden. Pic: AP

There's a huge amount set aside for vaccines, testing and treatments too, as well as extra funding for state and local governments, schools and businesses.

Lower and middle-income families will also receive tax breaks.

Several Democrat leaders have compared it with the passage of the Affordable Care Act under Barack Obama, claiming it will not only "crush" the virus and the economic fallout but will also help alleviate some of the heavy gender and racial inequalities in the economy.

It includes a lot of the progressive policies they've been trying to push through for some time - like a refundable child tax credit.

Whether those survive beyond the pandemic will depends on future political negotiations, but Democrats have so far defied some of their own expectations with this.

Politically, the bill demonstrates what Washington is willing and able to do in a crisis. But it wasn't without setbacks. The Senate removed the plan for a gradual minimum wage increase to $15 an hour by 2025.

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The minimum wage has remained bitterly stagnant for a very long time in America.

But the popularity of the other aspects of the relief bill ensured it passed.

More than two-thirds, or 68%, of Americans support the package, according to a Quinnipiac University survey.

Mr Biden though is being careful not to take too much credit - deciding unlike his predecessor not to include his signature on the stimulus cheques.

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2021-03-10 21:33:45Z
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Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus package wins final approval in Congress - Financial Times

Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package received final backing from the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, sealing congressional approval for a massive fiscal stimulus with far-reaching political and economic consequences that will last for years.

The House passed the bill in a narrow 220 to 211 vote, with all but one Democrat voting in favour and every Republican voting against it, paving the way for Biden to sign it into law on Friday.

The final greenlight from Congress marks a big victory for the US president, who took office in January with a mission to mitigate fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and reboot the US economy. The bill reflects a belief among Biden and his top aides that they can rapidly accelerate the recovery without triggering an unwanted jump in inflation.

In a statement from the White House just moments after the House vote, Biden said: “This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation — the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going — a fighting chance”.

The package includes a new round of means-tested direct payments of up to $1,400 for most American adults, a weekly top-up of up to $300 in federal unemployment benefits, another $350bn in aid to state and local governments and an expansion of tax credits for children.

“This legislation is one of the most transformative and historic bills any of us will ever have the opportunity to support,” Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker said just before the vote on Wednesday.

“The American people have been calling on us to deliver relief, and to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic. Today we come together to send a resounding message that help is on the way,” Bobby Scott, a Democratic House member from Virginia, said earlier in the day.

Republicans attacked the legislation as excessive spending that was stuffed with pet projects championed by the left. “It just throws out money without accountability,” Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, said on Wednesday.

He added: “Remember what Margaret Thatcher said: socialism will eventually run out of other people’s money.”

In a speech on Tuesday evening, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, made one of her most extensive public appeals for the bill, arguing the case for a large-scale fiscal expansion.

“If we do our job, I am confident that Americans will make it to the other side of this pandemic — and be met there by some measure of prosperity,” she said. “[It] will finally allow us to do what most of us came to government for — not simply to fight fires and resolve crises, but to build a better country.”

Biden has made the legislation a top priority since taking office this year. Its passage will clear a path for the president to shift focus to other items on his agenda, such as expanding infrastructure spending or reforming voting laws.

Biden is scheduled to address the nation in a televised primetime speech on Thursday. Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said the president would use the address to “talk about Covid, what we have been through as a country, and what the path forward looks like”.

Pelosi on Tuesday said she had no concerns about the bill passing the lower chamber of Congress, which her party controls by a narrow margin.

The biggest potential sources of defection were progressive Democrats unhappy with the Senate’s changes to the bill, which trimmed certain provisions and stripped out an increase in the minimum wage.

But even some Democratic critics of the bill signalled they were on board on Wednesday. “While I will continue to pressure my party to live up to its banner as the party of the people, I cannot ignore the immediate need for relief,” said Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat.

Psaki on Tuesday reiterated Biden’s vow to send the direct payments to American families within the month. She noted that unlike the two previous rounds of cheques sent under the Trump administration, the next round of payments would not include the president’s signature.

“The cheques will be signed by a career official at the bureau of fiscal service,” she added. “This is not about [Biden]. It is about the American people getting relief.”

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2021-03-10 19:29:07Z
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Speculation grows over 'missing' COVID-denying president of Tanzania John Magufuli - Sky News

Speculation is growing in Tanzania about the mystery whereabouts of the country's coronavirus-denying president after he failed to appear in public for more than a week.

John Magufuli was last seen on 27 February at his secretary of state's swearing-in ceremony at the State House government offices in Dar es Salaam.

Politicians in Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya have suggested he may have fallen ill after his chief secretary John Kijazi died last month.

His disappearance is unusual as he is well known for his public addresses on state television several times a week.

Kenyan newspaper The Nation reported on Wednesday that Mr Magufuli had been flown to a hospital in Nairobi and was being treated by medics there.

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Image: The president has scorned social distancing. Pic: AP

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The report only cited anonymous government sources, and a spokesman for the Kenyan government said he had no knowledge of the Tanzanian leader being in Kenya.

Mr Magufuli has become notorious for his views on COVID-19.

In June last year, he declared the country of 60 million people "free" of the virus after three days of prayer.

He has resisted imposing lockdowns and encouraged international tourism while neighbouring African states implemented tight restrictions.

Image: Crowds are pictured without masks or distancing measures as Mr Magufuli speaks in Dodoma. Pic: AP

What has Tanzanian President John Magufuli said about coronavirus?

Tanzania declared its first case of coronavirus on 16 March last year.

But the president insisted it could not harm the country's Christian population.

"Coronavirus, which is a devil, cannot survive in the body of Christ... It will burn instantly," he told a church in the capital of Dodoma on 22 March.

Mr Magufuli has condemned preventative measures such as closing shops and restaurants, and practising social distancing.

Determined to keep the economy going, he said: "We have had a number of viral diseases, including AIDS and measles. Our economy must come first. It must not sleep… Life must go on."

When a large delivery of testing kits arrived in Tanzania, Mr Magufuli quickly dismissed them as faulty, claiming they had returned positive results on samples from goats and pawpaws.

He also believes vaccines do not work, claiming: "Vaccines are not good. If they were, then the white man would have brought vaccines for HIV/AIDS."

Instead, he has said inhaling steam and eating maize and potatoes can cure COVID.

"We will also continue to take health precautions including the use of steam inhalation," he told supporters.

"You inhale while you pray to God, you pray while farming maize, potatoes, so that you can eat well and corona fails to enter your body. They will scare you a lot, my fellow Tanzanians, but you should stand firm."

He also endorsed the use of a plant-based treatment developed in Madagascar, which claims to treat COVID with sweet wormwood.

"We will send a plane to bring the drugs so that Tanzanians can also benefit," Mr Magufuli announced in May.

Scientists later warned it risked making malaria in the region resistant to drugs.

What have people said about John Magufuli and where he might be?

Several people have suggested Mr Magufuli has fallen ill, possibly with coronavirus.

Exiled Tanzanian opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, questioned Mr Magufuli's whereabouts in a series of tweets.

He suggested he had flown to Nairobi for hospital treatment.

"It's a sad comment on his stewardship of our country that it's come to this: that he himself had to get COVID-19 and be flown out to Kenya in order to prove that prayers, steam inhalations and other unproven herbal concoctions he's championed are no protection against coronavirus," he wrote.

Another politician, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has spoken to people close to the president who said he is seriously ill and in hospital.

Kenyan newspaper The Nation has reported the president is in hospital in Nairobi, but spokesmen for both the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments failed to confirm the claims.

Recently some top Tanzanian officials have died and at least one was reported to have died from COVID.

Until recently Mr Magufuli had claimed the country was free of the virus.

But on 10 February the US embassy warned of a significant increase in the number of cases.

Days later the president's official office announced the death of John Kijazi, the president's chief secretary.

On 17 February, the first-vice-president of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, died after his party announced he was ill with COVID.

Days later on 21 February, Mr Magufuli admitted that Tanzania had a coronavirus problem, which was his first public acknowledgement of the virus since he claimed it had disappeared in June last year.

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2021-03-10 19:23:47Z
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Tanzanian President John Magufuli 'in Kenyan hospital with Covid' - BBC News

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Tanzania's President John Magufuli is being treated in hospital in Kenya and is in a critical condition, opposition leader Tundu Lissu has told the BBC, citing well-placed sources.

He has had coronavirus and a cardiac arrest, Mr Lissu said.

Mr Magufuli, who has not been seen in public for 11 days, has faced criticism for his handling of Covid-19.

The East African nation has not published its coronavirus cases since May and refuses to buy vaccines.

• BBC Africa Live: Updates from around the continent
• Magufuli - the man who declared victory over coronavirus
• The country that's rejecting the Covid vaccine

The 61-year-old president has called for prayers and herbal-infused steam therapy to counter the virus.

Earlier this month, at a funeral for a top presidential aide, Mr Magufuli said Tanzania had defeated Covid-19 last year and would win again this year.

The aide died hours after the vice-president of the country's semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar, who was being treated for Covid-19.

'Silence irresponsible'

Mr Lissu said he had been told that President Magufuli was flown to Kenya for treatment at Nairobi Hospital on Monday night.

The BBC has not been able to independently confirm this.

There has been no official response from the government, which has warned against publishing unverified information about the Tanzanian leader, who was last seen at an official event in Dar es Salaam on 27 February.

Nairobi Hospital also said it could not comment.

Mr Lissu told the BBC that the government's silence was fuelling rumours, was irresponsible, and the president's health should not be a private matter.

It would not be a surprise to Tanzanians that Mr Magufuli had contracted coronavirus as he had been reckless in the face of the virus, he said.

AFP

"He has never worn a mask, he has been going to mass public gatherings without taking any precautions that people are taking all around the world," Mr Lissu told the BBC's Africa correspondent Leila Nathoo from exile in Belgium.

"This is someone who has repeatedly and publicly trashed established medicine, he's relied on prayers and herbal concoctions of unproven value."

The 53 year old alleged that Tanzania's Finance Minister Philip Mpango was also being treated at the same hospital in Kenya's capital.

Mr Lissu, who came second in presidential elections for the opposition Chadema party in October with 13% of the vote, said he considered his rival's reputation to be in complete tatters.

"He's built a reputation as a patriot, that he doesn't travel outside the country, that he's a president for the poor - and he's refused to do anything to ameliorate the situation in Tanzania by telling people we are fine."

Last week, the Catholic Church in Tanzania urged people to take Covid-19 precautions more seriously, saying 60 nuns and 25 priests had died in the last two months after showing symptoms of coronavirus.

Mr Lissu first went into exile in 2017 after surviving an assassination attempt. He returned to take part in last year's polls, the results of which he says were rigged.

He left the country again in November, saying he had received more death threats.

• Who is Tundu Lissu?

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2021-03-10 17:25:06Z
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Russia slows down Twitter over 'banned content' - BBC News

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Russia's media watchdog has said it is slowing down the speed of Twitter, accusing the US social media company of failing to remove 3,000 posts relating to suicide, drugs and pornography.

The move was to protect Russian citizens, Roskomnadzor said.

Twitter is widely used by the Kremlin's opponents and Russian users said they were having difficulty accessing photos and videos on the site.

As the decision came into effect, the watchdog's website went down.

Media watchdog officials said the disruption, which affected a number of Russian websites including the Kremlin, was unrelated to the action against Twitter and involved technical issues at Russian state internet provider Rostelecom, which was also affected.

The watchdog said it was reducing the speed of Twitter on all mobile phones in Russia and on half of desktop devices. It cited Twitter's failure to remove banned content which, it said, incited the suicide of minors and contained indecent images of children, as well as information on drug use.

There were reports that internet connection speeds in general had slowed down.

Twitter is the sixth biggest social media site in Russia and widely used by opposition figures including Alexei Navalny, who was jailed in January on his return to Russia after treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia.

When big rallies took place across Russia over his detention, the media watchdog warned Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and other sites that fines would be imposed if posts urging young people to protest were not deleted. Earlier this month Russian authorities said they were suing Twitter and four other social media companies for allegedly failing to delete such posts.

• Top Putin critic sent to Russian penal colony

How Russia can slow down Twitter

By Cristina Criddle, BBC Technology Reporter

This is the first time that the Russian government has flexed its muscles in this way, using laws signed in 2019 that gave authorities the power to restrict access to US social media sites.

Internet service providers use network equipment, called deep packet inspection (DPI), which enables the government to track and filter content. Roskomnadzor will compel these providers to slow down the speeds of Twitter for users.

Officials have previously tested a "sovereign RuNet" - an independent network that routes the country's web traffic and data through state-controlled points. This means the Kremlin can block Russian connections to websites around the world or slow down the flow of data for Russian users accessing certain sites.

Supporters say it offers protection if the West ever tries to sever Russia's internet access. But activists say it gives the Kremlin the power to censor Russians from the rest of the world.

'No desire to block anything'

President Vladimir Putin recently gave the media watchdog the power to block social media platforms if they "discriminated" against Russian media. In a speech in January he accused social media giants of "de facto competing with states", playing an increasing role in the life of society.

Roskomnadzor warned Twitter in its statement that if it failed to delete posts containing "illegal" material then it could be blocked entirely.

It cited content containing indecent images of children; inciting the suicide of minors as well as information on drug use.

"Roskomnadzor has filed over 28,000 preliminary and repeated orders to delete unlawful links and publications," the statement said, adding that 3,168 remained unblocked. The watchdog highlighted what it said was a "striking example" of Twitter failing to remove calls for mass suicide by children on 3 March. Russia's investigative committee said videos and other information were spread to children on social networks at the end of last month.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was "no desire to block anything, but it is quite reasonable to take measures to force these companies to comply with our laws".

The main goal, he told a daily briefing, was for Russians to have access to all global resources, as long as those resources stayed within the law.

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2021-03-10 14:35:24Z
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Biden turns to infrastructure as stimulus bill nears the finish line - Financial Times

As Congress prepares to pass Joe Biden’s $1.9tn US stimulus bill, the administration and its Democratic allies are gearing up for their next big legislative priority: a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure package.

Some Democrats hope that a sweeping infrastructure bill will garner bipartisan support, unlike the stimulus package, which is likely to pass congress without a single Republican vote.

But the administration could struggle to craft legislation designed to overhaul creaking bridges, roads and broadband networks that appeals to Republicans while also fulfilling Biden’s ambitions on clean energy and racial equity.

In recent days, Biden has met with lawmakers from both parties as well as union leaders and government officials to discuss the contours of a package, and congressional Democrats say they expect him to press ahead as soon as the stimulus is signed into law.

“He wants to move as quickly as possible,” Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said after a meeting at the White House last week. “He wants it to be very big and he feels that this is the key to the recovery package.”

DeFazio has suggested that Congress could pass the infrastructure bill through a process known as reconciliation, the same manoeuvre it used to push the stimulus through the Senate without any Republican support.

Normally, legislation needs the backing of at least 60 senators due to “filibuster” rules, but reconciliation allows Democrats to pass bills in the Senate, which is split 50-50, because vice-president Kamala Harris has a tiebreaking vote.

However, Joe Manchin, the moderate Democratic senator who dug his heels in over parts of the stimulus, has said he would not support an infrastructure bill that does not have some Republican backing.

“I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying,” Manchin said in a recent interview with Axios.

Manchin said he would be willing to back a package worth up to $4tn as long as it was paid for by tax increases. He believes that such a bill could secure the support of as many as 10 Republican senators along with the entire Democratic caucus, allowing it to be passed under normal Senate rules.

A sweeping infrastructure bill would include billions of dollars for updating highways, bridges and water and sewer lines, while also expanding broadband networks into rural areas.

Last week, the American Civil Society of Engineers gave a “C-minus” grade to US infrastructure and said the country needed to spend $2.8tn over the next decade to update its roads and railway lines.

While some projects could win Republican backing, Biden’s desire to also use the bill to help meet the administration’s goal of eliminating carbon emissions from the electric sector by 2035 — in part by increasing the number of electric-car charging stations — will prove a tougher sell.

Expanding sustainable housing and access to public transport in the pursuit of improving racial equity might also prove unpopular with some Republicans.

Spending on infrastructure — and the jobs created by big-ticket projects — enjoys widespread public support, and some Republicans have indicated that they would support a narrow bill focused on roads and broadband.

But they have tempered that support by voicing concerns over how a package will be paid for. During the election campaign, Biden suggested it could be funded by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, but some in his orbit argue that adding to deficit spending will allow the administration to move more quickly.

Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as a domestic policy aide to president Bill Clinton, said the Biden administration should consider breaking the infrastructure package into a series of separate smaller bills, including one focused solely on universal broadband access that has bipartisan support.

“The idea that you keep the agreeable parts in one big bill to push the rest of the train — I don’t think that’s going to work,” Galston added.

Galston said that the experience of pushing through the large $1.9tn stimulus package without Republican support might give some Democrats the confidence to use the same playbook for infrastructure.

He said they might think that “if they went big once, they can do it again — and if they have to do it with Democrats only, they will”.

But Galston warned “they should probably think again”.

Progressive Democrats disagree and argue that the Biden administration would be foolish to narrow the scope of its infrastructure ambitions, especially on climate and racial equity.

Kevin DeGood, the director of infrastructure policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, said Democrats had learned two important lessons from Barack Obama’s presidency.

The first was that Obama’s 2009 stimulus package had been too small, which was the catalyst for their decision to pass a large $1.9tn bill this time round.

The second was that they cannot afford to wait while they try to find elusive Republican votes in the Senate.

“You can’t . . . chase this dangling carrot of bipartisanship indefinitely if that means that six months, or a year, or a year and a half, are going to go by, and the deal is still ultimately going to fall apart,” DeGood said.

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2021-03-10 11:00:04Z
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Russia targets Twitter speed over 'banned content' - BBC News

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Russia's media watchdog has said it is slowing down the speed of Twitter, accusing the US social media company of failing to remove 3,000 "banned" posts.

The move was "to protect Russian citizens", Roskomnadzor said.

Twitter is widely used by the Kremlin's opponents and President Vladimir Putin has accused social media of competing with governments.

As the decision came into effect, the watchdog's website and that of the Kremlin went down.

The reason for the disruption was not clear but media watchdog officials said it was unrelated to the action against Twitter.

Russian Twitter users said they had begun having difficulties accessing photos and videos on the site. There were also reports that connection speeds in general had slowed down and that the work of Russia's state internet provider Rostelecom had also been hit. Rostelecom also insisted its problems were not connected to the action against Twitter.

Twitter is the sixth biggest social media site in Russia and widely used by opposition figures including Alexei Navalny, who was jailed in January on his return to Russia after treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia.

The watchdog said it was reducing the speed of the site on all mobile phones in Russia and on half of non-mobile devices.

President Putin recently gave the media watchdog the power to block social media platforms if they "discriminated" against Russian media. Roskomnadzor warned Twitter in its statement that if it failed to delete 3,000 posts containing "illegal" material then it could be blocked entirely.

It cited content containing child pornography, inciting the suicide of minors as well information on drug use.

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2021-03-10 10:39:19Z
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